JJ Abrams Sets Newbie Director Julius Onah On God Particle

Talk about hitting the jackpot. Variety say that newbie director Julius Onah, who has thus far only helmed one indie, feature length movie, The Girl Is In Trouble, and several shorts, has been handed the keys to JJ Abrams’ top secret sci-fi project, God Particle.

The film will be developed through Paramount’s microbudget genre arm, InSurge Pictures, and be budgeted for between $5-$10 million. Many up and coming directors were after the job, but it was the 29-year-old Nigerian born Onah who won the gig.

Abrams is producing the tale of an American space station crew who are left stranded and abandoned when “a problem with a Hadron accelerator causes Earth to vanish entirely.” Oren Uziel wrote the script.

The budget may seem small, especially for a JJ Abrams sci-fi flick, but in 2008 Abrams gave relatively unknown TV director Matt Reeves his big break directing Cloverfield, which only cost $25 million and went on to make almost $200 million. And Onah won’t need to budget for city-destroying monsters in his movie. We don’t think.